The Challenge
In 2021, Samsung Next underwent a massive reorganization and shifted from being an innovation group to an early-stage venture firm for the world’s largest tech company. Unfortunately, over the previous decade Samsung had developed a negative reputation with founders for being difficult to work with and slow to make decisions. Samsung was also widely perceived as a safe player who would follow more innovative companies with services and products. With this reputation, how would Samsung Next be able to deliver on its new mission of getting close to the most promising founders and the most exciting deals?

The Solution
To reset Next’s reputation and to get close to the biggest deals, we knew that we would need to prove to the founder ecosystems that Samsung Next was a value-add investor. Messaging Next’s intentions without actions would be received as disingenuous and too “marketing-y.” So, we started by redesigning the website to be entirely Founder-focused. The highly polished, professionally photographed website was replaced with a straightforward all-text site wholly designed to be helpful to founders: they could quickly learn about Next’s areas of interest, see their entire portfolio, and get contact information for anyone on the team.

Then, we allocated most of our budget each year to 20+ high-touch events and conference sponsorships, focusing on creating buzzworthy, world-class experiences for every founder. These tightly planned events were designed to shape a very positive and collaborative feeling in the ecosystem while also encouraging founders to spread the word about Next.